"She's dead?!" Quill exclaimed.
She, Gwen, and Jack were gathered around the table with the phone on speaker.
"I'm looking at the body right now." Fox confirmed, staring just outside of the crime scene tape, looking at Azazel's body, lank on the ground, her eyes wide with fear. He shook his head in distress. "I don't have to tell you what this looks like."
Everyone exchanged looks, as, yes, they knew. It didn't exactly take a genius to put two and two together.
"Whoever killed her did it because of the information she found." Gwen answered, a knot forming in her stomach. They just got a woman killed.
"Fox, you need to figure out what she knew." Quill ordered, leaning into the table, "We're clearly on to something big and dangerous here."
"Believe me, I know," Fox replied, "And I'm on it."
"Look out for yourself." Quill cautioned. While Quill and Azazel weren't really friends, though she had liked her, but she knew whatever had been enough to make her flee what had been her home for as long as anyone currently around, save for possibly Sonja, could remember had to be ugly, especially if they had tracked her down and killed her for it. She didn't want the same thing happening to Fox.
"You too." Fox replied, "Everybody stay close."
"Can do." Gwen agreed before the call turned off. She ran her fingers through her hair, letting out a sigh. "That poor woman."
"Azazel waited at least right invasions, three administrations and multiple crack downs in that place." Quill summarized, "What could have run her off?"
No one answered the question, because they had already answered it.
Jack brought them to the unanswered question. "So, what do we do now?" Apart from conceding power to Fox and Gwen he was truly at a loss as well, while the action appeared to be going on the other side of the world.
Suddenly Gwen got an idea. "You say the thing works as short-term teleport?"
"Yeah," Jack confirmed, then realized what Gwen was thinking, "You want me to go help Fox."
"Exactly." Gwen replied.
"Be right there." Jack agreed, before disappearing.
"Here's hoping he comes back." Quill commented.
Gwen wanted to argue, to state that Quill was being harsh, childish even, but only nodded her head. She glanced around a moment then asked, "Hey, where's Charlie?"
"He had to make a run for—for something I forget what he said it was, something we needed." Quill answered. Looking at the clock she added, her eyes narrowing, "Come to think of it, whatever it was probably shouldn't have taken this long."
The reason the "run" was taking so long was because it wasn't a run, but a cover for meeting with Mateusz in the park before the young man's shift.
"Mateusz," Charlie began, "I've been meaning to ask you something."
"What?" Mateusz asked.
"You've—been teaching me." Charlie began nervously, "And I was wondering if I could—teach you."
"Teach me what?" Mateusz asked, looking over to him.
"How to fight." Charlie answered, "I don't—I don't want anything like that happened to you again." While he didn't understand what exactly had happened, Mateusz had told him about his misadventures during the Lankin invasion and he had never been more grateful for Gwen.
"I don't think being able to throw a punch would have helped the night." Mateusz reasoned, "Besides, who says I can't?"
"Okay then," Charlie responded, "Hit me."
"What?" Mateusz responded, thinking he had to be joking.
"Hit me." Charlie repeated, "Show me what you got."
"Charlie, I'm not going to—" Mateusz began, and his voice trailed off as Charlie took a swing at him, and he ducked out of the way, "What the Hell?!"
"Well, it was the only way you were going to do it!" Charlie exclaimed.
"Charlie—" Mateusz began trying to get his bearings back, "I know you have trouble with things like this sometimes for some reason, so I'll just let you know that is not normal."
Charlie realized he may have crossed a line. "Sorry."
"What's with this sudden interest in teaching me to fight anyway?" Mateusz asked.
"Like, I said I don't want anything to happen to you." Charlie began, "I—" his voice trailed off. He didn't want to say what he was about to say. He couldn't.
"Go on," Mateusz urged, "You what?"
"I can't—" Charlie began, "I don't—it's too soon to say it, we've only known each other a couple of weeks and we've only been doing—whatever this is for less than that." After a beat, he added, "At the very least I care for you deeply."
"You—" Mateusz began then broke into a grin. He leaned and kissed Charlie on the forehead.
Suddenly Charlie's heart was fluttering and he felt almost heady.
"Was that—alright?" Mateusz asked.
"Yes." Charlie answered, "Yes, that was more than alright."
Mateusz took his hands. "At the very least I care for you deeply, too." He told him, "If it means so much to you, we can do it."
"Thank you." Charlie beamed when suddenly his phone went off. He ignored it, saying. "Okay, first we'll need to—" However, the phone still kept ringing.
"Maybe you should get that." Mateusz suggested.
"No, it's fine." Charlie insisted, "As I was saying—" However the ringing began more insisted. "Maybe you're right." He conceded and checked the caller ID and a knot formed in his stomach as he as it was his mother. He wasn't sure how she would react if she found out about all this. "Yes?" He asked when he picked up.
"Where are you?" Quill asked, "How long does it take to get a—what did you go out for again?"
"Groceries." Charlie answered, "We were this close to half-rations." This was actually too. He should probably actually buy some previsions before he went home, if only to sell the story.
"Well, get back here." Quill ordered, "There's been a development."
"Alright," Charlie agreed, "See you in a few minutes." He hung up and looked at Mateusz ruefully. "I'm sorry, I have to go. I haven't exactly told her about us…"
"I haven't told my parents either." Mateusz informed him.
Then it hit him what Mateusz thought was going on. "No, it's not like that, it's—I just have to go. See you later."
"You too.". Mateusz called back to her.
After a quick stop by the nearest petrol station to actually pick up some cans, he arrived back at the flat.
"'Bout time." Quill commented, taking the bag from him, "Come on, we need to talk."
"What's happened?" Charlie asked urgently.
Quill sat the groceries down on the counter. "Azazel had found something that spooked her, she refused to tell Fox, and then he heard on the police scanner when a body matching her description."
"She's dead?" Charlie responded.
Quill nodded. "Fox is trying find what was so big and bad someone was willing to kill to cover it up, Jack went to help."
"What about us?" Charlie asked, "What do we do?"
"Right now," Quill began, "Wait it out, try to not die and hope Susan's source actually gets here. Assuming they don't get him too."
Meanwhile, back in Kalamazoo, Fox and Jack had conned their way into Azazel's apparent.
"Do you think she would have anything solid?" Jack asked, "Like files or a flash drive?"
"Sometimes," Fox replied, "Depending on what the information was. I have no idea where she would have put it, though. I didn't know her that well."
Whatever happen she had left the apparent in a hurry. The furniture was still there, giving the implication that one would be coming back. Fox looked over in the kitchen trash can saw a small pile of ask. "Damn it."
"What?" Jack said, turning his head in Fox's direction.
"She was burning something over here." Fox began, digging through what left trying to find something he could make sense of. All he was found was half of a picture of what looked like an older house that managed to escape the blaze in her haste.
Joining Fox and picking up an empty purple portfolio had been left on an end table in the living room. "I've been thinking—" He began.
"Oh, now we are in trouble." Fox teased.
"Anyway." Jack began, slightly annoyed, "Given what she did she must have taken some information with her. For levage or setting up shop later. If this doesn't pan out we should try to get into the personal effects found on the body."
After ransacking the place and finding nothing, that' exactly what they did.
"Here's everything." The young officer at the evidence desk, declared, sitting the box down in front of them.
"Thank you." Fox replied, waiting until he left before they both started pulling things out of the box like mad.
Jack saw three plastic figures, identical Russian nesting dolls, each that could fit not the palm of his hand. Taking a chance, he emptied the bag, and, picking up the nesting doll, grabbed the top and pulled out a metal strip attached to it. He did the same with the others and found the same thing. "Jack pot."
They quickly pocketed the flash drives, gave the box, sans the drives, back to the offer, went back to the hotel and started sniffing through the intel.
And there was a lot of it.
"I'm taking this and diving it up with Chris." Fox declared shifting through it, "I think Azazel would want it that way."
"I think we both know that's not true." Jack replied, peering over him, "So, anything good?"
"Lots of it." Fox said, "But nothing related to us." That what when something caught his eye. A statue of a crying angel. He clicked on it.
"What's that?" Jack asked.
"A Statue." Fox answered, "Like the one that took Toni and that cop. Maybe we can at least solve that mystery."
He clicked on everything that seemed related to the picture, but very little of it made sense.
"Well, it looks like Toni Jo and her inspector weren't the only ones this thing has snatched, "Fox began, "I've got reports around the globe of this thing. A lot of them around this house in London called Western Drumlins." His eyes darked up to Jack. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"Road trip?" Jack responded.